When James Kavanaugh comes up against difficulty in his life, he turns to some old family advice. \u201cNever lose the ability to continuously learn. Life is about learning lessons.\u201d<\/p>\n
The IBM<\/a> executive may be responsible for steering IBM\u2019s AI<\/a> strategy these days but becoming a finance executive at a tech giant wasn\u2019t always his life plan. Born and raised in what he describes as \u201cvery lower middle class\u201d south side of Chicago, Kavanaugh has had to adapt over the years. <\/p>\n His father, a fireman for 40 years, is the source of much of his outlook on life. <\/p>\n \u201cHe instilled what I think is the most important thing as a parent, and that is a core set of values,\u201d he says. \u201cHe always believed we make our own life lessons and decisions.\u201d <\/p>\n That was a philosophy that served Kavanaugh well. His first passion, sports, came to an early end when an injury cut short his college sports career and forced him to transfer from the University of Montana to the University of Dayton in Ohio, where he says he had never intended to go to in the first place. He pursued a degree in finance, where he was among the top in his class, and found a new passion for the world of finance. And just as things looked settled \u2013 top of his class, four job offers waiting \u2013 another twist of fate changed his career path. <\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to go like everyone else and work on Wall Street,\u201d he says. \u201cThen Black Monday happened.\u201d<\/p>\n The 1987 stock market crash was swift and brutal, hitting not only US stock markets but global ones, with an estimated impact of $1.7 trillion. In the US, it wiped $500 million off the markets, caused the Dow Jones to fall by 22.6 per cent \u2013 a record for a single day\u2019s trading. <\/p>\n Despite fears of an economic impact to rival the Great Depression of the 1920s, the effect of Black Monday was limited \u2013 for the stock markets at least. For Kavanaugh, it had wider repercussions. <\/p>\n \u201cWithin 48 hours, my offers were rescinded,\u201d he says. \u201cThere I was, top of my class. And I had no job.\u201d<\/p>\n Looking back, he says the setback was another opportunity. He landed a job at National Cash Register, working in accounts receivable. It was a low-level, low-paying job, he says, but it taught him some tough lessons. <\/p>\n \u201cFrom there, I found my love of technology and what it really meant. I found my love of applying finance to business. And I\u2019ve taken that approach as a business leader, as a strategic leader, and today as the CFO of a Fortune 25 company in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n When Kavanaugh joined IBM as a finance executive, it was a huge leap of faith. A stalwart of the tech sector, IBM had contributed some of the key products driving the tech industry: the hard disk drive inside your computer, the floppy disk of the 1970s and even the magnetic stripe on the back of swipe cards. It was a key player in the personal computer revolution, too.<\/p>\n In the mid-1990s, however, the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. The mainframe business, a core part of IBM\u2019s business, was seen as cruising towards obsolescence. There were plans to split Big Blue into autonomous units. <\/p>\n The company brought in an outsider as chief executive \u2013 Lou Gerstner \u2013 to turn things around. Kavanaugh describes Gerstner, who died in December 2025, as \u201cone of the most phenomenal leaders I\u2019ve ever met in my life\u201d. <\/p>\n He strategically pivoted the company, recruiting new leaders, and concentrating on simplifying the business. IBM did not need a new vision, but rather to focus on its existing strength \u2013 being able to offer an integrated range of technology services to clients. <\/p>\n It paid off, and IBM lived to fight another day. Over the years it has reinvented itself over and over, shifting its focus to IT services, exiting a struggling PC business in 2005 with the sale to Lenovo and, in more recent years, adopting AI as a core pillar of its business.<\/p>\n Last year, IBM reported revenues of $67.5 billion, an 8 per cent rise year-on-year. That was a significant uptick from the previous year, when revenues rose only 1 per cent. Software and infrastructure revenues for 2025 outperformed, rising by 11 and 12 per cent respectively, with only the consulting division lagging behind at 2 per cent growth. <\/p>\n Kavanaugh has been key to some of those changes. He was appointed chief transformation officer in 2015, with the task of reinventing the company\u2019s portfolio, before becoming chief financial officer (CFO) in 2018. He is currently approaching the longest-tenured CFO in IBM\u2019s history. But rather than adopt the more traditional \u201cguardian of stability\u201d role of a CFO, Kavanaugh prefers to approach it as an agent of transformation. <\/p>\n \u201cWhat is required today as a CFO is strategic vision about where the markets are going, how you create value, how you create competitive advantage. You\u2019ve got to be able to enable organisational capability and agility, to mobilise an organisation at speed. And, you\u2019ve got to be able to operate and do business model innovation. One thing is having a strategic vision; another thing is enabling that vision to execution. And I think that sits at the cornerstone or the epicentre of what a CFO does inside a company.\u201d<\/p>\n Kavanaugh oversees IBM\u2019s \u201cclient zero\u201d approach to its business; it acts as the first client, developing a blueprint for enterprise-wide productivity using AI, hybrid cloud and automation. He has also played a key role in advancing IBM\u2019s transformation into an AI-driven and hybrid cloud enterprise.<\/p>\n IBM\u2019s willingness to adapt and change when necessary has been one of the key things that has kept him at the company for three decades. <\/p>\n \u201cThis industry, I always say, is defined by a relentless characteristic of innovation and commoditisation. To sustain lasting relevance, you have to continuously reinvent yourself. Our founding father used to always say: \u2018You have to have the willingness to change everything other than the core values that you built the company on.\u2019 <\/p>\n \u201cTechnology can be used for good, technology can be used for bad. But at IBM, we\u2019ve always prided ourselves on a core purpose and mission: to be the catalyst that makes the world work better. I think that\u2019s pretty aspirational, but it defines who we are as a culture. Our job is to bring responsible, ethical technology for the common good, period. The purpose, the mission, the values that this company was built on, we would never sacrifice.\u201d <\/p>\n Those core values have generated a lot of loyalty to IBM, which may work in its favour as the expected AI revolution takes hold. The company is no stranger to the technology. It was investing in artificial intelligence before ChatGPT was a gleam in Sam Altman\u2019s eye. In the 1950s, it began experimenting with machine learning to play games. That developed further into chess and, in 1997, IBM\u2019s chess-playing computer Deep Blue beat champion Garry Kasparov, the first time a computer programme had beaten a human chess champion. IBM, sensibly, retired the computer after its victory. <\/p>\n Then followed Watson, the Jeopardy-playing supercomputer that became the basis for IBM\u2019s next-generation AI products, through watsonx. This is where the company is betting it will see future growth. <\/p>\n Although AI is still in its early days, it is already making a big impact, and not all of it is positive. In recent weeks, tech companies such as Oracle and Meta have announced redundancies in Ireland as the focus \u2013 and funding \u2013 remains firmly on the next wave of technology. But while some are considering AI to replace human workers, Kavanaugh thinks the reality will be more nuanced. <\/p>\n \u201cI firmly believe that we cannot operate in a world of \u2018AI plus\u2019 \u2013 we have to operate in a world of \u2018plus AI\u2019. It is the augmented intelligence of human plus digital that have to synergistically work together for incremental value. And I think that\u2019s the way the world is going to be.\u201d <\/p>\n Ireland is a key part of that future. IBM has only a handful of research competency labs in the world, one of which is located in Ireland. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re working on the future of AI, the future of computing, future of quantum. So we have a research branding here. We have the largest software lab across all of IBM \u2013 in all of Europe \u2013 in Ireland, working on bringing research and the future of computing to the reality of scale today in products, services and solution offering.\u201d <\/p>\n That is in addition to global services hubs, treasury operations and support for the domestic Irish business sales and service. <\/p>\n But IBM has a long history in Ireland. It opened its first office here in 1956, starting out with three staff. In those days it was electric typewriters and punch card machines. Seventy years on the company has 3,000 employees, working across AI, cloud and quantum computing. <\/p>\n Two years ago, it announced 800 new jobs here; more recently, it committed to tripling junior hires throughout the company. But it has also cut jobs globally, announcing in November last year that it would lose a small percentage of its employees in the fourth quarter of the year. With almost 280,000 employees worldwide, even a 1 per cent cut would have resulted in a significant number of redundancies. <\/p>\n Kavanaugh is upbeat about the prospects for investment in Ireland, though, praising the \u201cpro business environment\u201d and noting the company remains committed to the country even in the face of political changes in the US. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve operated with different policies, political environments around the world for a long period of time. We\u2019ve always prided ourselves on policy, engagement and discussion versus politics,\u201d he says. \u201cAs a CFO, I\u2019m always looking for certainty of environment, which arguably is tough today. But I\u2019m also looking for how we create the most value. We don\u2019t make quick decisions based on politics. We always follow policy over a long period of time, and I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll continue to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Kavanaugh now turns to his own family to handle tough situations. He has five children, all grown up, and recently became a grandfather. There is a new generation to pass on the lessons his father instilled in him. <\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t change one thing in my life. That doesn\u2019t mean that everything is perfect, but I firmly I believe that things happen for a reason and you have to learn as you move forward,\u201d he says. \u201cDo I wish I never got injured playing sport and I could have followed my passion there? Absolutely. But those were lessons that I think change the course of defining who I am. And to me, that\u2019s the most important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n CV<\/p>\n Name: James Kavanaugh.<\/p>\n Job: Chief financial officer, IBM.<\/p>\n Family: Married with five children and one grandson.<\/p>\n Something you might expect: He is of Irish descent, as the name suggests; his great-great-grandfather came from Dublin.<\/p>\n Something that may surprise you: He never intended to go into corporate finance. His first love was sports \u2013 he played American football in college \u2013 and his Wall Street aspirations were tanked by Black Monday in 1987. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When James Kavanaugh comes up against difficulty in his life, he turns to some old family advice. \u201cNever…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[218,72,5763,61,60,1962],"class_list":["post-461824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-business","tag-ibm","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}